ON TRACK TO WIN Two local teens compete in the Junior Olympics Page 18
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
Vol. 59, No. 29
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Daughter finds closure in family’s war story Strawberry Festival carnival is canceled
Islander will travel to France for liberation commemoration By SUSAN RIEMER For The Beachcomber
Later this month islander Nancy Bachant will follow in her father’s footsteps when she travels to Rennes, France, where he was killed during World War ll. There, she and her family will participate in events commemorating the city’s 70th anniversary of liberation from Germany. Bachant and her sisters Karen and Janet — a set of triplets — were born in May of 1944, just months before their father, Herbert Bachant, died near Rennes when German fire hit his military vehicle. Shortly after his death, Bachant and her sisters came to be known as the Bachant Triplets and were featured in newspapers across the country with their mother, who had been widowed at just 22 years old. Now, after researching that time and finding one of the sisters online, a military historian in Rennes has invited the three women to be part of the community’s commemoration event, which will be held early next month, marking its Aug. 4 liberation date. A story about the women’s impending arrival has been carried in at least one Rennes newspaper. “This will close the circle,” Bachant said last week at her home overlooking KVI beach. “It’s closure. Now you know the end of the story. He did not die in vain.” Bachant calls herself the family historian,
By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Susan Riemer/Staff Photo
Nancy Bachant shows a scrapbook she has put together chronicling part of her family’s story. and a trip to her home shows the results of her efforts, with framed tributes, scrapbooks and newspaper clippings telling the family’s story. For many years, Bachant knew little about
her father, but began researching his life and death when she was in her 50s. For a long SEE WORLD WAR II, 19
VYFS hopes to break world record on the harbor Nonprofit begins push for kayakers to sign up By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
With one month to go until it attempts to break a world record, Vashon Youth & Family Services is looking to recruit around 2,500 people to take to Quartermaster Harbor in kayaks and canoes for a gathering that organizers hope will be fun as well as bring in needed funds for the social
services agency. This month VYFS is starting a registration push for Raft Up, an Aug. 17 event where those involved will attempt to set a world record for the number of kayaks and canoes rafted up at one time. VYFS Executive Director Kathleen Johnson said she believes about 500 people are already planning to come that day with their boats, but far fewer have completed the online registration which recently opened up and far Hovershots APV Photo
SEE RAFT UP, 15
An aerial shot of the record-holding raft-up, which took place last year in Michigan.
A contract disagreement has resulted in the cancellation of the Strawberry Festival carnival, leading festival organizers to say it may be time to rethink the carnival’s place at Vashon’s annual celebration. The Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the Strawberry Festival, announced on Monday that after several days of unsuccessful contract negotiations with the carnival company, it couldn’t reach an agreement and there will be no carnival at this weekend’s festival. The contract proposed by the company, Paradise Amusement, was one that Chamber Director Jim Marsh said would have put the chamber at too much financial risk. “I’m a little shell shocked,” Marsh said Monday evening, explaining his disappointment that the carnival fell through. “It was too much of a gargantuan risk to take.” Laura Griffith, a chamber board member, said she, too, was disappointed at the turn of events days before the festival. “I’m not a big fan of carnivals myself, but I think there needs to be something for kids because there are a lot of kids on the island,” she said, adding that she worries some families won’t be as inclined to come to the festival this year. A representative of Paradise Amusements, Kacee Quintana, said on Monday that he was unable to comment on the contract negotiations, and other representatives of the company could not be reached. Quintana said logistical issues played into the decision to not come to the festival this year and that the company regrets not being able to put on the carnival. Normally, he said, carnival rides would have begun arriving on the island Monday evening. SEE CARNIVAL, 23